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Welcome to International Journal of Anatomical Variations (IJAV) - an annual journal of anatomical variations and clinical anatomy case reports. After having a notable experience for eight years in NEUROANATOMY, we are pleased to introduce you IJAV. We are eventually announcing our new journal after three years of feasibility and background study period. We hope that IJAV will fill in the gap in anatomy journals’ bunch. IJAV is an annual, open access journal having electronic version only. Despite of unavailability of a budget for publishing IJAV, the evaluation of submissions and access to the full text articles is totally free of charge.

Our vision for IJAV is to constitute an online compendium for anatomical variations in gross, radiological and surgical anatomy, neuroanatomy and case reports in clinical anatomy. We believe that cases have an important role in clinical anatomy education. In this aspect, we aim to serve as an open source of case reports. We hope that IJAV will be cited in most of the case reports related to clinical anatomy and anatomical variations in near future.

In NEUROANATOMY, we encouraged the submission of case reports in the area of neuroanatomy. Whereas in IJAV, besides neuroanatomy, we will consider case reports in any area related to human anatomy. The scope of IJAV will encompass any anatomical variations in gross, radiological and surgical anatomy. Case reports in clinical anatomy are also welcome.

All submitted articles will be peer-reviewed. No processing fee will be charged from authors. One of the most important features of IJAV will be speedy review and rapid publication. We strive to publish an accepted manuscript within three weeks of initial submission. Our young and dynamic Scientific Advisory Board will achieve this objective.

A few remarks about our logo and page design: Prof. Dr. M. Mustafa ALDUR designed our logo, being inspired by a quadricuspid aortic valve case, reported by Francesco FORMICA et al. [Formica F, Sangalli F, Ferro O, Paolini G. A rare cause of severe aortic regurgitation: quadricuspid aortic valve. Interact. Cardiovasc. Thorac. Surg. 2004; 3: 672-674]. We appreciate their contribution to our journal. The typeface in our logo and index page is Papyrus. The irregular margins of this font symbolize the non-uniformity in anatomy. The background in the menu bar is parchment; with Papyrus typeface, they refer to the old medical books in the ancient Egypt.

As we mentioned earlier, our aim is to constitute an online compendium for anatomical variations similar to the invaluable book written by Ronald A. BERGMAN, Adel K. AFIFI and Ryosuke MIYAUCHI [Bergman RA, Afifi AK, Miyauchi R. Compendium of human anatomical variation. Baltimore, Urban and Schwarzenberg. 1988]. To realize this vision, we need you to submit your case reports to IJAV and encourage your colleagues to do so. As we did in NEUROANATOMY, we hope to be indexed in international indexes beginning from our first issue.

Last but not least, I would like to thank to Dr. M. Mustafa ALDUR for his superhuman efforts and everlasting support to IJAV. Moreover, I would like to voice my special gratitude to the members of Scientific Advisory Board, who have accepted to take the road with us in this arduous journey.